The present invention relates to the field of scaffolding safety and in particular scaffold safety relating to fall protection systems.
Many types of construction or maintenance of buildings, have to be carried out at relatively high elevations and thus require the use of scaffolds. An inherent risk during this type of work is falling from the scaffold during erection of the scaffold or during working on the scaffold. Often, the distance from the fall site to the ground is relatively large and the fall can thus cause severe injury or death. Various devices are currently used to prevent a person working on a scaffold to fall off the scaffold. Examples of safety devices currently used for fall protection during scaffolding are retractable lanyards or safety straps with rope grab mechanism. In both cases, the lanyard or safety strap is attached to a harness worn by the scaffolder. The lanyard or safety strap is then secured on the scaffold frame. There are several disadvantages to these devices. First, due to regulations, the lanyard or safety strap cannot exceed several feet in length. Thus a worker might have to release and re-attach his lanyard or safety strap several times when walking from one end of the scaffold to the other. This presents an inconvenience to workers and prevents them from walking efficiently and freely on the scaffold. Especially when work on the scaffold requires using both hands to carry building material etc. releasing and re-attaching the lanyard or safety strap will interfere with the construction process. Further, when erecting a new level of scaffolding, the initial platform of the newly built level does not provide any tie off points above the waist level of the worker. Workers therefore have to remain tied off on the first level below. This means that the lanyard or safety strap will extend below the waist of the worker and presents the risk of tripping over the lanyard or safety strap or getting caught up on the scaffold frames below. Having the lanyard secured below the waist level of the worker also means that in case of a fall, the fall distance equals almost the entire length of the lanyard and poses the risk of injury.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to provide an improved fall protection system to obviate prior shortcomings of other systems to provide a system that is safer and more convenient for workers during scaffold construction.